Hi all.. I'm trying to get my 01 raptor running.. here's the prob..
cranks and runs ok. no probs.. but when cranking the motor, it causes the battery wires to heat up EXTREMELY hot.. melting almost. this is almost a sure sign of a grounded-out wire somewhere, or a short somewhere.

Here's my question.. when I disconnect the positive cable from the starter, and test the positive terminal on the starter itself, the starter is putting out a "Ground" signal at the positive terminal. This is the first raptor I've worked on, but if the starter terminal is putting out a ground signal, when the relay sends the positive voltage to the starter to start the thing.. that would cause my short, wouldn't it? I'm no ATV mechanic, but I do know a lot about cars. I would believe the starter terminal should be isolated from the ground circuit.. right?

Thanks..

 

What are you using to measure the resistance? THe starter positive connection is gonna be less than half an ohm to ground or so. Most meters and their leads have almost this much internal resistance and so don't measure this very well.

If your starter wire is getting extremely hot when cranking, it's probably time to rebuild the starter or find out if someting else is causing the starter to labor. As long as its cranking over, you don't have an external short... the energy is all going into the starter and it's working REAL hard... Why?

It's a half hour job to pull the starter, clean, lubricate and rebuild it. Only parts necessary MIGHT be new brushes... but when i rebuilt mine, they were fine, starter just needed a good cleaning and relube of the bearings.